3 Emerging Business Models—And the Organizational Structure to Support Them

The business-to-business media and information industry continues to adapt to the new realities of serving our end-user and marketing customers. While estimates vary dramatically about emerging business models and the revenue we can expect to see, there are clearly visible trends that will significantly affect every b-to-b media and information company regardless of size or market—the only question is to what degree.

These emerging trends include Data, Audience Monetization and the Rise of Pay-for-Performance Marketing; Mobile Becoming the Primary Customer Touchpoint; and Business Information. While being too far ahead of the curve is as dangerous as being too far behind, these are three emerging business models that are already revolutionizing b-to-b media and information and will continue to alter the way we do business going forward.

ABM’s 2013 Executive Forum offered a deep-dive into actionable strategic and operational takeaways into addressing each of these emerging business models, from internal organization to monetization and requisite technologies to put ABM members at the head of the pack.

Agenda Highlights

CEO Roundtable: Corporate Structure and the New B-to-B Matrix

Business-to-business media and information companies are becoming increasingly matrixed, with cross-functional business groups operating across vertical units that used to operate as silos. That’s prompting business leaders to rethink the way their companies are structured. In this roundtable, top CEOs debate the new order of the b-to-b universe, from business group models and how they work together to the new must-have leadership positions (CMO? CTO?) to who ultimately owns what in the b-to-b matrix.

Data, Audience and the Rise of Pay-for-Performance Marketing

We’ve seen the rise and the fall of lead generation due to commoditization. Now, the ability to gather customer data and deeply target vertical markets is sparking a third act for lead generation, including pay-for-performance models in which publishers and agencies are paid when a new lead or customer is passed on to the marketer. This session focuses on how b-to-b companies are enhancing their marketer relationships with data-rich customer information, how marketing automation, pay-for-performance campaigns and programmatic buying are changing the sales game, and what your sales and marketing services teams need to do to adapt and deliver, including new pricing strategies that properly value leads and data for media companies, managing client expectations and best practices for leading customers “through the funnel.”

Who Should Own the Integrated Database?

The key to a successful marketing and advertising business is increasingly driven by the integrated database. Yet, the creation of an integrated database forces a new set of issues with disseminating that data across the enterprise and breaking down the silos of past ownership. This session delivers a step-by-step how to for consolidating databases to identify customer behavior and position that audience more attractively for marketers, including who owns the database and how that information is distributed effectively throughout the organization, as well as setting usage rules for customers and colleagues.

Can Media and Business Information Models Co-Exist?

Revenue from data and business information products grew 7.3 percent in 2012, accounting for 9 percent (or $2.2 billion) of the $25.5 billion business-to-business media and information market, according to ABM’s BIN Report. While that remains the smallest slice of a pie that includes print and digital advertising and events, data, business information and paid content are among the biggest opportunities for b-to-b media (and among the most attractive initiatives for investors looking for highly profitable, recurring revenue models). Can media and business information models build off each other—or are they so divergent that they need to be operated as completely separate entities? Hear how two business leaders are answering that question with two completely different approaches.

Mobile and the Multi-Channel Media Company

Mobile drives anywhere from 10 percent to 80 percent of traffic for b-to-b media brands but it’s becoming clear that whether the connection is via e-mail, mobile-optimized websites, digital editions, social media, event apps or utility apps, customers are engaging daily with products and services via mobile. This session offers insight into how media and business information companies are starting to take tablet and smartphone products beyond one-off experiments to a fully integrated part of the platform and addresses the questions of making mobile a real business from supporting a streamlined content flow that still leverages the native capabilities of mobile platforms to what the advertising structure really looks like in a mobile channel (including how to preserve ad impressions from websites to mobile); and whether responsive design is enough to make mobile part of the multi-channel solution.

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